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20/5/2009

Two Exhibitions

Yvon Lambert, New York

Shinique Smith - Ten Times Myself

Yvon Lambert is pleased to announce Shinique Smith’s Ten Times Myself, the artist’s first solo exhibition at Yvon Lambert New York. Ten Times Myself will feature new works by the American artist including paintings and sculptures. The exhibit will run concurrently with an exhibition of new works by Michael Brown. Both exhibitions will open with a reception for the artists on Thursday, May 21, 2009 from 6-8 pm and will be on view until July 31, 2009. Shinique Smith brings the anonymous aspects of life to the forefront, examining her own footing within a world constantly askew. Ten Times Myself, inspired from song lyrics, is a self-imposed call to be bolder and to go from one to ten without remorse. Infusing an ardent style owing to Abstract Expressionism and Japanese Calligraphy, the continuity of Smith’s paintings, collages, and sculptures combine a graceful spontaneity and an explosive, yet controlled, movement.

With Ten Times Myself, Smith maintains an innate physical and intimate approach, revealing a compression of memories while blurring the context of life and art, the real and the perceived. In each medium, the artist utilizes discarded objects - many of which, alone, lack significance. Integrating intense, and vibrantly hued textiles that weave in and out of each work, Smith creates her own form of calligraphic gesture that transgresses the written language. The result is an autobiographical narrative that speaks to nostalgia and the inherent examination of the meaning of “broken” as well as “whole.” Through these works, Smith “rants, confesses and embraces,” conveying an in-depth view, not solely of self but within a wider cultural context of the value placed on what we hold on to, give away and discard, and how that plays into who we become. In dealing with such multi-layered discourse, the artist’s overall outlook, at times ranging from aggressive to romantic, is one of optimism and hopefulness. Smith’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions internationally at venues including The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; The New Museum, New York; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin; PS 1 Contemporary Arts Center, New York; and The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Colorado. She is included in public collections such as The Denver Art Museum, Colorado; The Studio Museum, New York; The Margulies Collection, Miami; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore.

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Michael Brown - An Object is Just Material

Yvon Lambert is pleased to announce An Object is Just Material, Michael Brown’s second exhibition at Yvon Lambert New York. The show will feature new works by the Brooklyn based artist and will run concurrently with an exhibition of new work by Shinique Smith. Both exhibitions will open with a reception for the artists on Thursday, May 21, 2009 from 6-8 pm and will be on view until July 31, 2009. Reinvention is vital to Michael Brown’s (b. 1982) work. Frequently, he uses everyday objects such as a six-pack of aluminum cans or lawn chairs. The artist’s latest body of work converts vinyl records into household items. Seemingly simple in nature, Brown’s works are the product of a philosophy that is the hallmark of his oeuvre, with each object possessing a poignant history and message that refers to its origin. The artist’s subtle transformations of these mundane items have roots in both minimalism and Duchamp’s readymades.

For this exhibition, Brown has melted stacks of record albums and re-cast them into a variety of common domestic objects, replacing their original parts with the vinyl. The artist hand-selected records by musicians that he considers to have unequivocally contributed to the history of Rock-and-Roll. Each cast object consists of records by a single musician or band: The Ramones records become fan blades; Marvin Gaye vinyl turns into a paintbrush; Elvis albums are transformed into a bucket; and his Aretha Franklin collection converted into a mop handle. The technological simplicity and vintage feel of vinyl appealed to the artist when he began collecting records during his teens. Embracing the connection that vinyl maintains to a culture less contrived, less dominated by over-marketed popular music of the 1990s, the record came to symbolize the artist’s desire to distance himself from his own culture by using a simpler process. For Brown, as the collection grew, the vinyl record took on a new significance: that of an object. Brown questions not only the extent to which the physical object affects the experience of music, but also whether such associations remain intact once the original nature--or perceived function of the material--has undergone dramatic alteration. Michael Brown’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions at venues including the Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH; Yvon Lambert, Paris, France; Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY; Zwirner and Wirth, New York, NY; Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY; Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh, NY; Dorsky Center for Curatorial Studies, New York, NY.

Image: Shinique Smith

Please contact Geneva Jann-Lewis with any press inquiries at geneva@yvon-lambert.com

Opening Thursday, May 21, 2009 from 6-8 pm

Yvon Lambert
550 West 21st Street - New York
Free admission

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